


Archaeometric Dating

by autobotscoutriella



Series: Archaeometric Dating [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Archaeometry, Community: fandomweekly, F/F, First Meetings, Second Chances, that are actually not first meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 14:06:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17367269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella
Summary: Lancer and Greenlight have met before. They just missed each other the first time.





	Archaeometric Dating

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the prompt "Second Chances" at [Fandomweekly](https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/) on Dreamwidth. I've never ventured into this pairing before and now I ship it extremely hard.

In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before the war found Greenlight's peaceful corner of Iacon. Open attacks on the capital city were still rare, but brief shootouts or small explosions--those were all too common, even if before today they had never reached _her_ streets.

The little energon joint where she'd done her first-year archaeometry assignments and the tiny Archive outpost where she and Lunar Storm had pestered the clerk on duty every fifth circle when the new datapads arrived were home. Watching shrapnel from the explosion rip through the windows of both _hurt_ , almost as much as the shock wave that knocked her stumbling backward. Unfortunately, she didn't get time to think about it, because the second and third explosions tossed her back into the rubble, and straight into someone who had been running toward the explosions, Primus knew why.

"Look out--!"

The landing was not at all soft. Greenlight found herself on her back, groaning, with someone bending over her and shaking her shoulder. "Hey! Hey, can you hear me? How many digits am I holding up?"

"Ohhh. Ow." Greenlight pushed herself upright with a little help from a gold servo and rubbed the back of her helm, trying to figure out why the stranger next to her looked so familiar. "Three. I'm good."

"Good. I think you'll be fine." The stranger knelt beside her and tilted her helm curiously. "Hey, do I know you?"

Did she? Greenlight finally got a good look at her helper's face, and memories flooded back.

_Ancient ruins, stretching out for miles around them. Glyph, lecturing away on the different ages of the three layers in the wall the little group stood beside. Trying to hang on Glyph's every word, make the most of a once-in-a-lifetime trip—and failing because one of the most attractive mecha she’d ever seen was on the other side of Tap Out and she lost focus whenever the gold-framed student’s EM field brushed against hers._

_Trying to work up the courage to talk to her—then getting pulled away by one of the colony transfers and vowing that she’d do it the next night._

_Leaving without even finding out her name._

And there she was, bulkier with metal-dusting tools replaced with a handgun and a comm amplifier, but still so pretty that Greenlight found herself fumbling for words.

"Uh--yeah, I think--were you on a r-research trip to Nova Cronum with Glyph once?"

The gold mech looked puzzled for a moment, then lit up. "Oh! Yeah, I was! A couple decades back! I--" Sirens chirped, and red and blue flashing emergency lights reflected jarringly off shimmering yellow plating. "Ah, slag, that's the bomb squad. C'mere, let me help you. We'll clear out and find somewhere less...explody."

Greenlight couldn't say no, because her rescuer was hauling her upright before she had time to protest and guiding her down the street well away from the source of the explosions It seemed to have gone quiet, but nothing felt like a guarantee anymore.

"No casualties. We got lucky," the gold mech added once they'd made it far enough away for the sirens to fade. "I'm Lancer, by the way. Autobot. Was a brand-new archaeometrist before the war kicked off--that trip with Glyph was the best part of my academic career."

"Greenlight. I just got my certification a couple years ago. And--mine too." She wanted to say more, but her knees were still shaking, and it felt strange to talk about archaeometry with a blown-up street behind her. "You--you ran straight in to rescue me. How--"

"Oh, that." Lancer shrugged a shoulder. "Autobot. 'S what I do."

"Yeah, but..." Greenlight carefully disengaged herself from the other mech's arm and tested to make sure she could stand on her own. "Thank you. Really--thank you."

"It's nothing." Lancer almost seemed to be blushing, despite her words. "But you're welcome."

They stood in silence for a second, and Greenlight realized she couldn't just walk away. She'd never expected to see the pretty mech from that trip again--if she walked away, the odds that they would never cross paths a third time were too high.

"So, uh, action archaeometrist. That's...that's pretty awesome. Shouldn't you have an electro-whip or something?" Primus, referencing a sparkling’s holovid was _stupid_. Greenlight could practically feel her cheekplates turning an unnatural shade of embarrassed blue.

Lancer grinned and shuffled in place a little. "Oh, they're--I guess they're not super practical. But, uh...I might've, y’know, set my comm ping tones to the tune of the holovid theme."

It was so unexpected Greenlight couldn’t help but laugh. “I—I always wanted to do that!”

“I think half my classmates did.” Lancer offered her an arm again. “’Fact, I bet we had some of the same classes. You’ve had a rough night. I get it, I do." There was sympathy in her voice. "You want to go get a drink and figure out how many teachers we had in common? Autobot base. It’s on me.”

The decision was easy. She’d missed her chance once. She wasn’t going to miss it again. Accepting the arm with a brief wistful glance at the damage done to her once-familiar street, Greenlight followed Lancer away from the lights and the destruction. "So...uh, you ever have to read Perceptor's analysis of Rust Sea mineral deposits? Primus, that was the most boring class."

"Yes! I had to read it first-year and I almost quit, but then I had a class with Glyph on pre-Quintesson civilizations and fell back in love with archaeometry. Ooh, is that etching on your arm based on the Old Vosnian fresco? I was going to get one like it before the war..."


End file.
